Motherhood may limit cocaine’s effects

Mother rats respond much differently to cocaine than female rats that have never given birth, new research shows.

Mother rats’ brains released less of the chemical dopamine, which helps cause the drug’s high, report researchers at the University of Michigan.

“While we have not yet identified a mechanism to explain these differences, they do suggest that the reward system and brain circuitry affected by cocaine is changed with maternal experience,” says Jennifer Cummings.